I've come accross an old Les Paul copy (Black with 'gold' hardware). Rhythm/Treble switch has snapped and the hardware is beginning to rust. I'm a bass player by design (!) but I'd like to try and count to 6, and I thought this'd be a nice place to start.

I'd love to restore this old beauty to it's former glory, but i'm wondering where to start.

I have enough electronics knowledge to rewire, or to get a PCB knocked together with some new circuitry. What I don't have is any idea of which pickups to replace the current one's with, or schematics on tone/effect circuits.

I don't want to spend an absolute fortune on components - but any recommendations you have would be appreciated. The style of music i'm interested in is blues/funk/rock. I know hubuckers aren't exactly designed for funk - so let's leave it as blues/rock (i.e. mild distortion!)

Use a high quality switch for best results... The pickups sound quality is at the top of the list of my guitar rewiring priorities. PAF, Super Distortions, or...I'd go with HB's...in my LP the neck pickup has multiple coil taps, I drilled a hole for the switch between/above the volume controls, but would have opted for [had I known] a push pull switch/pot. Because It's a LP, I'd try going with LP type HB pickups, I'm not that choosy about the 'type' of pickup, but the quality of the tone of 'cheepies' I AM picky over...if you're messing with it, might as well put something 1rst quality...some of the newer-ish guitars have 'lesser' pickups..I do an A/B test with a LP original or can basically just tell from experience if 'hot' applies to pickup tone... General upgrading of wiring is recommended. The wires I got in my recent Epiphone Gibsons is so small and cheesy, it's like soldering hair...the wire is so thin it's hard to strip the ins. off without breaking it, so thin it doesn't hold shape enough to be held in place, by the time it's hot enough to shed the solder the insulation gloms off of it...hideous...old Gibsons have thick wiring, Much Much way ez-er to work with...and...doesn't break off after a month or so. Some of these newer guitars have barely enough copper in them to work 'till sold....that's why I sold my DOT...I got it to work again and glued the jack where it worked...chintzy wiring can ruin an otherwise excellent axe very soon, or eventually in my exp. There are rewiring kits available at Stuart Macdonald, it is probably worth considering to upgrade the entire wiring system if the guitar plays well. I haven't done this to my LP Epiphone Gibson, and it has no '0' available on the volume controls, has been re-pickuped [Dimarzio PAF and Split Coil neck HBPU's], and has been 'fixed' 3 times so far...the switch still works .

Or, if you want to go a whole different direction, try P90s. GFS makes a cheap P90 copy that is sized to fit in a standard humbucker slot--I have one to put in my old, hacked Ovation Preacher, but I have to cut the pickguard a little, so I can't comment on it yet. But I have a set of great-sounding GFS pups in a Strat, and this one has some good reviews online. Also, it is fully potted and comes with nice sized cloth-covered leads (Pete).

To me, the fact that its a copy means you are free to experiment, and you don't have to just put a pricey pickup in to start.

"Stratty Switch'...or coil tapper is one of a very few [imo] 'recent' improvements" to electric guitar playing. It has the advantage that it: Lets' you switch to a quite different voicing than standard HB's have Makes an LP type [2HB] guitar sound alot like a Stratocaster [neck PU anyway, as that's what I've got], this is a very nice sound. Use one guitar, setup one guitar, string one guitar, get used to playing one guitar... Because the 5way Stratocaster switch engages pickup pairs, and those pickups take a 'thinner' 'sample [SC's are half as wide as HB's]...and 'sample' from different points...measuring from the bridge or nut... Guitar Wood, shape aside, the pickup placements are different therefore a LP can be made to sound 'alot like' or 'nothing like' a Strat, depending on whose playing/listening...

FWIW, there are some reviews posted at Harmony Central, and you may find some threads at FDP, etc. Again, what these are worth is variable at best--I took a chance, and it worked out well, but these are different pups, so YMMV.